The Boooogus Coin

RAY: Here’s the answer. At first blush you would think that you would divide the 50 coins in half.

TOM: Yeah. So, you'd do 25 and 25. That's weighing number one.

RAY: Right. You find out that the bogus coin is on the left side. Then you weigh the coins on the left, 12 and 12 with one left over.

Now, Assume the worst case scenario. One of them's heavier. So now that’s two weighings. Now you divide it six and six, making it three weighings. Then three and three, for four weighings.

TOM: And you're done for. It takes five.

RAY: Right. No matter how you do it using that system, it won't work. So you had to come up with something a little more clever. And what you do is divide the coins into three piles. Two piles of 17 and one of 16.

You take the two piles of 17 and you put those on the scale, and you keep the 16 pile aside,. Right away, you can see that you're going to eliminate not half the coins, but two thirds of the coins.TOM: Oh, man. It's so beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful.

RAY: So, let's assume that one of the 17 is the heavier one. You throw everything else away.You've only made one weighing and you've narrowed it down to 17 coins. Now, you could divide the 17 in half, but better still, divide it thirds so you've got six and six and five.

OK? And you can see very clearly that you're going to be able to do this because the next group would be three and three, and then one and one. And bingo! And the key is, once you figure out the idea that you're going to divide it into three piles and not two, it jumps right out at you.